Have you ever tried instant coffee? I hope not. Take something as great as coffee, put it in a single-use packet, add a little hot water, and you get one of the nastiest things out there.
Instant coffee is just another example of our appetite for instant fixes. I like instant gratification as much as anyone, but I’ve learned it’s rarely worth it. In this post, I’ll share why I believe quick fixes don’t—and probably never will—work.
Let’s start with a familiar story: lottery winners who fall apart after their big payout. But first, a step back: personal finances in the U.S. aren’t great on average. Statistics show many Americans could manage money better. Lots of people buy lottery tickets dreaming of mansions, fancy cars, and early retirement. Yet many winners find themselves in trouble not long after a massive windfall. How can someone blow through tens of millions in a few months? Lotteries are a classic “instant fix” promise: win once and you’re set. But a big payout doesn’t guarantee lasting wealth.
Maybe you’ve also seen or been pitched a multi-level marketing company—what some call a “get rich quick” scheme. I had that experience in college. After getting off the bus one day, two young people approached me: “You look sharp. We have a business opportunity we’d love to tell you about.” I’d started learning about investing and small business, so I was curious. After a Starbucks meeting, a chat with an apparently successful manager, and another recruiting event, I paid my fee and became an Amway business owner. My parents were baffled and said I’d been conned. After a few cold calls, awkward tries to hype it to friends, and $200 spent, I quit. Three months and $200 later, that was my first quick-fix failure.
Companies like Amway might work for a few people, but for most, they’re a gamble. If your goal is instant wealth, joining one of those groups isn’t the shortcut you’re looking for.
For the last 18 months I’ve focused on two projects: a blog and a subscription kit business. When I started the blog, I read inspiring stories of people getting a million page views in the first month and making huge sums after a few hours of work. Of course, they wanted you to buy their course so you could do the same. My first month looked very different: I spent about 100 hours, wrote 15 posts, and got 1,659 page views—and roughly $5 in revenue. Six months in I’d written around 50 posts and still hadn’t reached 4,000 views in a month. I felt burned out and stuck.
Then I went to FinCon, a financial media conference, and met people who’d made blogging work full-time. Inspired, I committed to consistency. Since last November I’ve posted Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and added a podcast on Tuesdays. For the past seven months I haven’t missed a day, and the growth I wanted finally showed up. Instant results don’t happen overnight. Nobody is an overnight success, but steady effort can get you there.
The subscription kit business followed a similar path. After a successful Kickstarter last May and June, sales stalled. The product was bland, the website didn’t look trustworthy, and the idea needed refinement. Balancing a day job, a blog, family, and a new business was hard—I don’t recommend taking on all that at once. I had to figure out what I enjoyed, what I could realistically do, and go for it. Over the past few months I rebranded, redesigned the site, and tweaked the product. Now I get a few sales a week. Hearing customers say, “I love waiting for my box to arrive,” or, “The directions are simple and it has everything I need,” is amazing. If that feedback had come in the first month without the work, I don’t know if I would have appreciated it. I could have slapped together a website and called it done, but quick fixes don’t work. Now the company is in a much better position.
We live in a world of instant coffee, instant credit, one-click checkout, and round-the-clock news. It’s easy to start believing life should be instant too. But it isn’t.
Life is hard. Anything new takes time to grow. Think back to learning to ride a bike: you start with training wheels, practice, lose them, ride around the neighborhood, and eventually go miles without thinking about it. A skill that began with training wheels can become a lifelong habit.
The same goes for skills, fitness, money, and relationships. You can’t find real success with a few clicks. Links and ads might look tempting, but they aren’t magic. It will take time and effort, and it will be a struggle—but persistence pays off, and eventually you’ll get where you want to go.